Mesa/Boogie Studio Preamp

[2112]

I'm a sucker for old rack gear and anything Mesa/Boogie so when a Studio Preamp popped up locally I had to buy it. As expected it, it sounds very similar to what we already have in the box but I went ahead and tone matched my favourite settings anyway. I used a Mesa Stereo 2:50 power amp and a Marshall 4x12 with V30's to make the match.



The tone match IR is included for those who prefer to load up a cab or IR player block.

 

[R.D.]

Very cool ! Just watched the vid ! I always wanted one of these when I was a kid ....

I am having a brain fart though ..., how do I load the tone match ?

 

[yek]

In IR Player.

 

[Adinfinitum]

I bought a Mesa Studio Pre about 6 months ago. Missed my .22 Caliber's chainsaw grind, but didn't want another 1 x 12 combo. Can't wait to try out the patch.

 

[geetargeek79]

I miss my Quad. But yeah these old Mesa preamps are awesome.

 

[MicroMort]

I still have mine. I never play it, but can’t bring myself to sell it. I had it paired with a 50/50. It always delivered.

 

[2112]

I never play it, but can’t bring myself to sell it.

That's basically my entire rack. Amazing how well the Axe captures those tones.

 

[shatteredsquare]

Good trick to dial that thing in, if you turn down B/M/T to zero there'll be no sound, you can crack open the bass knob by itself and hear exactly the point where it starts to fall apart at a given input gain setting, once you know where the bass knob quits, turn it back to zero and do the same thing with the mid knob. Then just crack open bass and middle to right before those points, then crank the treble all the way up to full, that's how to dial in the Mark-style razor blade sound. Same thing works on the other Mark series amps, you need that little bit on the bass and mid knobs to fill in the body (you don't really need it, you can just keep bass and mid off, treble maxed and it still rips like a saw with the 5 band EQ set right) but it adds a little something to the fundamental when you crack open bass and middle to let them trickle some signal in.

 

[PumpkinKing86]

I was expecting it to have more gain. Sounds very nice, but the sounds you got from your Mark IV demo was more up my alley.

 

[shatteredsquare]

I was expecting it to have more gain. Sounds very nice, but the sounds you got from your Mark IV demo was more up my alley.

The missing gain is in the treble knob, it n e e d s to be up on 10, and the bass knob any higher than 1 starts taking away from the gain, it eats into the headroom and reduces the attack characteristic. Treble maxed, bass just barely cracked open, just barely, and mids the same as bass, just enough for the pot to pass signal. All the gain is in the treble knob (tonestack is pre-gain), the bass and scoop comes from the 5 band EQ. All the other Mark amps are the same way, all the gain is in the treble knob. The bass knob isn't even needed, unless you want it to be an AC30 type tone. But Mark amps are way more forgiving with the bass knob, Mark IV can handle a lot of bass knob and still be tight, studio pre gets wobbly with bass any higher than 1ish.

 

[2112]

Good trick to dial that thing in, if you turn down B/M/T to zero there'll be no sound, you can crack open the bass knob by itself and hear exactly the point where it starts to fall apart at a given input gain setting, once you know where the bass knob quits, turn it back to zero and do the same thing with the mid knob. Then just crack open bass and middle to right before those points, then crank the treble all the way up to full, that's how to dial in the Mark-style razor blade sound.

This is a fantastic methodology for dialing them in. I always go 1/2/7 on B/M/T by habit but your method is far more universal.

 

[shatteredsquare]

Yeah you can't hear what that bass knob is doing if the rest are turned up, Mark IV can handle a lot but the others flub pretty quick. Treble on 10, knock the highs back down with the presence knob, treble knob is legit the 3rd gain knob on those amps

 

[BrandonDT]

Awesome. Leon thanks for all you do for this community! Have you tried tone matching the Triaxis? Though I love the Axe rendition of the triaxis already, but curious as to any subtle eq differences.

 

[Dave Merrill]

This is a fantastic methodology for dialing them in. I always go 1/2/7 on B/M/T by habit but your method is far more universal.

Don't suppose one of you could do a video of this? I tried it, and "the point where it starts to fall apart" wasn't clear to me.

I've never had a modern Mesa (had a Mark-nothing back in the day, so old it had label-maker labels on the back). So, I'm not familiar on a gut level with how these things are supposed to behave, I just look for tones and response that feels like me. I've gotten some stuff that interests me out of these amps, but I'd still like the guided tour, if possible.

 

[shatteredsquare]

"the point where it starts to fall apart"

If all the knobs are off, then you crack the bass knob open where it just barely passes signal, you can palm mute the low string and it won't be distorted. If you go much past 1 on the bass knob, the low end will start to distort.

 

[dpeterson]

With my studio and quad i added a bbe before the poweramp and it was like a depth knob, low end chunk for days.